TALL RAMPS TO SPEED EXPRESS LANE ACCESS

Set over I-15 in Mira Mesa to open next year, and construction underway for two on I-805

San Diego 
Massive columns jutting from the middle of Interstate 15 are a precursor to a new type of ramp on this busy stretch of Mira Mesa — and a symbol of what’s to come across San Diego County.

Called direct access ramps, the structures cross high above traditional freeway lanes and feed a select group of motorists — including car pools, buses and fee-paying solo drivers — into the middle of the I-15 express lanes.

The ramps and express lanes aren’t popular with all drivers, including some who call them “VIP ramps” and “Lexus lanes” for the rich.

But officials with the California Department of Transportation said the unorthodox structures are key to giving people more options for getting around.

“It’s about moving more people in the same amount of right-of-way and building a viable mass-transit system,” Andrew Rice, a project manager with Caltrans, said Monday during a tour of the Mira Mesa site.

Starting next year, the ramps will be used by a new set of express buses that will ferry riders along I-15, from North County communities to job centers in downtown San Diego and Sorrento Valley.

That network of so-called rapid buses is expected to branch out across the county as other direct-access ramps and express lanes are built.

Construction started last week on direct access ramps on Interstate 805 at Palomar Street in Chula Vista. A similar project is nearly complete on I-805 in Sorrento Valley at Carroll Canyon Road.

The ramps also are envisioned, in varying forms, for future express lane projects in the region. That includes Interstate 5 in North County, where a direct access ramp is expected to feed traffic to an express lane corridor from surface streets below the freeway.

In Mira Mesa, where 17 steel and concrete columns plus excavators and dump trucks dot the I-15 corridor, drivers are learning to live with nearly constant construction. They will have to do so until the ramps’ expected opening in fall 2014.

Freeway shoulders are narrow near the construction site, and some drivers have complained of feeling pinched for space as they commute through the area.

Pain caused by the project is likely to grow in coming weeks. Caltrans expects to close the express lanes during at least one weekend in May to build scaffolding for a flyover bridge, said Mark Bobotis, a Caltrans engineer. Some nighttime closures will be required on the regular freeway lanes as well, he said.

Rice, the Caltrans project manager, said construction is a temporary inconvenience that will benefit not just people who use the ramps, but everyone else on I-15.

He noted that the average travel time for all drivers along the I-15 express lanes, which run from Escondido to Kearny Mesa, has dropped from 40 minutes to 30 minutes during the past decade as the lanes and several other direct access ramps were completed.

This is the last of five sets of direct access ramps along the I-15 express lanes. Two sets were built in Escondido and one set each in Rancho Bernardo and Sabre Springs.

Rice also said the new ramps in Mira Mesa will ease traffic by siphoning bus and car traffic away from the traditional freeway ramps.

Not everyone is satisfied with the indirect benefits of such projects.

“When do the majority of the people paying for these roads (solo drivers) get to use them? And why is paying twice a good idea?” said Cee Ross of San Diego, referring to gas taxes and fees paid to drive in the express lanes. Ross posted her online comments on a recent U-T San Diego article about I-15 express lanes.

In total, the new ramps and express lanes cost more than $1 billion, according to transportation officials.